The proposed Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Fellowship will provide both didactic and practical training in health services research for both MD and PhD post-doctoral fellows. The faculty, MD and PhD investigators, have experience in clinical epidemiology, health services research trials, biostatistics, decision analysis, technology assessment, ethics, translational research, and social psychology. They have applied these diverse methods extensively to comparative effectiveness research over the last 5-to-7 years. The objectives of this proposal are produce excellent, independent CER researchers by 1) providing the time and outstanding mentorship enabling fellows to develop their own research ideas and complete their own research projects;and 2) offering a didactic curriculum that will teach the fundamental skills required to perform clinical research. Each fellow makes a minimum 85% time commitment to didactic CER training and mentored CER. The didactic curriculum has core courses in research design, basic statistical analysis, research management, advanced (multivariate) statistical analysis, and research ethics. Fellows select a research mentor early in the first year of the two-year fellowship and plan with that mentor a CER project of their own devising. The program's philosophy is that research skills are best learned by carrying an idea from inception to publication rather than by primarily helping experienced researchers on existing projects. Therefore, fellows are required to develop their own ideas instead of merely assuming a role in established studies. At the end of 2 years, fellows are expected to have two manuscripts prepared for submission and have a research idea that is within a few months of submission for funding. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The need for comparative effectiveness research (CER) is now obvious to all health care stakeholders in the United States. The idea that any form of research worth doing is worth training scientists to do it properly, holds for CER. This training grant will improve the health care of Americans by training outstanding investigators in a critical new field.